Shutting down is no way to run a country

Frank Judisch's letter defending the Republicans' closure of the federal government in an attempt to eliminate Affordable Care ignores some basic facts about it:

? "ObamaCare" is the law of the land, passed by the Congress.

? It was upheld by the Supreme Court, when Republicans challenged it.

? Mitt Romney ran for president with the major agenda to repeal ObamaCare, but the American majority rejected him and he lost the election. That clearly contradicts the constant drumbeat by the Republicans that the majority of Americans do not want ObamaCare.

There are about 48 million Americans without medical insurance. Infant mortality and other health parameters in this country are as bad as in the Third World because of lack of adequate medical care for needy Americans. (All other advanced nations offer health care coverage to all their citizens.) Affordable Care aims to ensure health coverage for everyone.

More to the point, Judisch implies that the party in power in Congress could decide any day that they do not like some other established medical institution - for instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health - and threaten to shutdown the government to take away all its funding.

That is no way to run a country.

We have seen in the last few weeks that Republicans' shutting down the work of the federal government has caused inconvenience for many, misery for some and a loss of millions of dollars to the economy - and gave a poor image of the U.S. worldwide.

Sohan Hayreh

Iowa City

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Shutting down is no way to run a country

Frank Judisch's letter defending the Republicans' closure of the federal government in an attempt to eliminate Affordable Care ignores some basic facts about it: